Chad Daybell labeled anyone who got in the way of his dreams as 'zombies,' prosecution says in opening statements

Chad Daybell is someone with a "desire for sex, money and power" and who labels people standing in the way of his dreams as "zombies" and "dark spirits," prosecutors said.

The remarks were made during opening statements Wednesday in Daybell's triple-murder trial. He and his current wife, Lori Vallow, were charged in connection with the deaths of Daybell's ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, and Vallow's children, Joshua "JJ" Vallow and Tylee Ryan.

"You’ll hear in the world Chad and Lori planned for themselves, they identified those who stood in the way of their dream as dark," Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said.

"Their spouses, Lori’s own children and anyone who opposed them were labeled sometimes as dark spirits or even zombies. The evidence will show that it was a convenient narrative that dehumanized people who stood in their way," Wood added.

Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, asked the jury to focus on the facts of the case and to return a verdict of not guilty.

"Don’t be distracted by speculation. Don’t be distracted by guesses or assumptions or hunches," he said in his opening statement. "It all comes down to facts and evidence."

Daybell was arrested in June 2020 after police uncovered the remains of Joshua and Tylee on his property in Fremont County, Idaho.

His trial is expected to last 10 weeks.

Authorities have said they believe Daybell hid his stepchildren's remains sometime between September 2019 and June 2020. A formal search for Joshua, 7, and Tylee, 16, began in November 2019 after family members contacted authorities because they had not seen or spoken to the children, the Rexburg Police Department said.

Court documents later revealed that Joshua's remains had been buried in a pet cemetery and Tylee had been dismembered and burned in a fire pit.

Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo testified Wednesday about the moment law enforcement discovered Joshua's remains under a tree.

"There were taller shrubs. In the middle of the 6-by-6 section, it looked like there was just a little bit of grass. ... The ERT team began excavating that site. They removed the top layer of soil. ... At that point, you could see what appeared to be three large white rocks," he said. "As soon as they did that you could start to smell the odor, through my training experiences a decomposing body."

Hermosillo said as they continued to dig, officials found a "small body wrapped in black plastic with duct tape around it."

As authorities uncovered the remains, Daybell tried to flee, the detective testified.

"As soon as that was discovered, we received information on the radio that the defendant Daybell was leaving his daughter's residence which was catty-corner to his residence at a high rate of speed," Hermosillo said. "At that point, Mr. Daybell was pulled over and subsequently placed into custody."

Daybell and Vallow were indicted in 2021 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception.

They were also charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 2019 death of Tammy Daybell. In addition, Chad Daybell was charged with first-degree murder in her death.

He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty.

Vallow was convicted in May in the murders of her children, as well as of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Tammy Daybell.

In July, Vallow received multiple life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole in the deaths.

Authorities had accused Daybell and Vallow of failing to cooperate with the investigation into the children's disappearance and lying to officers about their whereabouts. They initially told officers that Joshua, who was adopted and had special needs, was in Arizona with a family friend but police determined that was not true.

The couple later abruptly left Rexburg. They were found in Hawaii in January 2020, when Vallow was taken into custody.

As police continued their investigation into the children, several mysterious deaths connected to the couple began to surface.

On July 11, 2019, Vallow's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, a few months after he filed for divorce. Lori Vallow and her brother were questioned by police at the time and claimed self-defense.

A grand jury in Arizona, where Lori and Charles Vallow lived, charged her with conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree nearly two years after his death. Cox was never charged. He died in 2019 from a pulmonary embolism, a condition that causes one or more arteries in the lungs to become blocked by a blood clot.

In October 2019, a few months after Charles Vallow died, Tammy Daybell was found dead as a result of what was believed to be natural causes at the time. Investigators later exhumed her body and conducted an autopsy that ruled it a homicide.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married just two weeks after Tammy’s funeral, NBC affiliate KSL of Salt Lake City reported.

Prosecutors have said they believe Daybell, a self-published author of more than two dozen books about near-death and doomsday events, and Vallow became obsessed with apocalyptic beliefs that led them to commit the murders.

The indictments say the pair endorsed and espoused "religious beliefs for the purpose of encouraging and/or justifying the homicides" of Tylee, Joshua and Tammy.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com